Two Turntables and a Lyokophone
by Tentacle H. Grape
Summary: While dealing with their own inner issues, a member of the group gets captured in a way they never would've expected. Can they battle past X.A.N.A and themselves in order to save their friend? First fic, will accept scathing criticism. Hiatus'd again.
1. To Break a Foundation

Hey everyone, this is my first fic. This story has been entered into the NaNoWriMo conest. Any and all criticism (barring pairing bashing) would be appreciated. This story was tagged Aelita/Jeremie for reasons relevant to the story *wink* Yumi/Ulrich will serve as a background pairing. Odd may or may not get a girl part way through. Any suggestions?

Danke, and enjoy.

Early morning mixing was her favorite things to do. After her recent discovery of the subgenre of Trance called Dubstep, she had even pulled her favorite genius, Jeremie into it. As the new subwoofer (which was apparently a requirement for listening to music with low bass) she had bought rattled the floors and windows, she sneaked a peek at the clock. Then she realized how tired she was. Kadic Academy's resident DJ, Aelita "Jenai" Stones needed rest.

Jeremie was of course, up and working. After tackling a problem with the antivirus' decompression matrix, he had finally fixed the issue. Looking at the clock, he was slightly surprised.

"_4 AM?" _he though to himself, _"Going to bed early then, I guess."_

He let thoughts of his pink-haired guardian angel carry him to sleep.

Ulrich never was one for staying up late, especially not since his last conversation with his father. He had resolved himself to try to focus up and get his grades on track, or risk another verbal beating. His purple-clad friend wasn't exactly thrilled about it either, since Ulrich had been Odd's partner in crime since before he could remember.

Odd didn't plan on letting Ulrich sleep peacefully, either. Had had heard "Princess" upstairs trying to tear the building down with sound, and he wasn't about to let that go unpunished. He was going to play Technetium by Reso, an odd-sounding song with an even stranger sound. It was what he called a "Banger."

Unlike the rest of her friends, Yumi was an early riser. She liked to have music going, and did as such. She moved around quietly, much like the cat she now owned. She liked to be alone in the mornings, and alone in general. Usually, at least. She wasn't so sure. She though about her relationship with Ulrich from time to time, wondering if they were still "just friends" as she had called it.

She met up with her friends at a local Italian restaurant for lunch. As usual, her friends were there together, and talked across the table, but at the same time, had their own conversations.

"Look, I'm not saying what I did was okay. I'm just saying it was necessary," explained Odd. "And I'm saying what you did was cruel and unnecessary," said Ulrich flatly. "Yeah, maybe, but I stand by what I did," countered Odd, trying to get away from the issue.

"What's going on?" asked Yumi, walking up to the table. "Odd used a girl to cheat on a test," Ulrich said, before Odd could object. Yumi pulled a chair from another table, and replied with disinterest, "Well, I'm not surprised, but you need to apologize and re-take the test." "Yeah, I know," said Odd, sounding defeated.

When she looked across the table, she saw Aelita and Jeremie talking animatedly.

"I've been looking into some bigger speakers, but I'd rather not go there after what happened last night. Jim almost had my head," Aelita said. Jeremie chuckled, and then said, "Yeah, I felt all that from MY room. It's no surprise that Jim did too."

Suddenly, he seemed slightly surprised, and asked, "Wait a minute, I distinctly remember you showing me Borgore's song…what was it?" Aelita smirked, and then finished for him, "Pretty distinct, huh?" Jeremie scoffed. "It was Ice Cream that I showed you, and you heard that in addition to some Flux P. Songs like Ice Cream don't really entertain me, but to everyone else, they're awesome."

"Why don't I believe that?" asked Jeremie, with the slyness only a genius could convey. Yumi took it a bit further, and said, "Haha, I wouldn't be so sure either." Ulrich and Odd had stopped arguing by now, and the table exploded with laughter at Aelita's expense.

Aelita saw the waiter coming with their food and spoke weakly, "Incoming," she said.

"Oh come on, Aelita. It was just a joke; we all know you're not that kind of girl," Ulrich said, trying to help Aelita lick her wounds.'

"Yeah, I know," Aelita replied.

Right as they were about to begin eating, a telltale beeping noise came from Jeremie's computer. A collective groan came from their table. "Ooof course," Ulrich said. "I gotta say, I called this one," Odd added. "He's really been active this week, hasn't he?" Aelita commented. "Yeah, actually. But we can figure out why later. For now, let's see if we can stop this one early," Jeremie said, with some finality. Yumi, unsurprised, but feeling she couldn't add anything to the conversation, got up and followed her comrades to the factory.

Generally, trips to the factory were pretty uneventful. Stop X.A.N.A, go on with life. It was getting increasingly difficult to keep up with him because of the fact that they couldn't just return to the past anymore. Now, they had to make sure they got on it early (or, even earlier than before) because of this. The only real upside to this was the exercise. Jeremie wasn't winded anymore when they reached the factory, and Ulrich had converted to running instead of the earlier skateboard.

Climbing into the scanners, Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi all stood in the cabins, waiting for the process to begin. After a slight, uncharacteristic delay, Ulrich spoke up, "Hey, Einstein! What's going on up there?"

No response.

"I'll go up and check on him, you guys hang out," Odd volunteered. Yumi sounded slightly amused, "Oh, I think I'll just leave and go get food." Ulrich and Aelita chuckled. Once Odd had ascended the ladder to the mainframe room, he found something that wasn't entirely unusual, but still a little strange. Jeremie was working, but wasn't trying to virtualize anything. It looked like he was..playing a first person shooter..against Kankrelauts! "Whoa, Jeremie, what are you doing?" Odd asked, amazed. "I'm trying to take down the monsters with an avatar," Jeremie answered, distracted by the battle that was raging onscreen. Before Odd could ask any questions, Jeremie continued, "Basically, all I'm doing is sending a virtual copy of myself onto Lyoko without actually going on Lyoko. Then, in layman's terms, I turned it into a computer game. I haven't figured out how to remotely deactivate towers yet, though." Odd seemed to understand now, and asked, "Oh, okay. But Aelita still has to go in and actually deactivate the tower?" "Unfortunately, that's true," Jeremie replied.

"Well, that sounds simple enough, but we have one current issue," Odd said. "And what's that?" Jeremie asked, with slight concern. "Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi are all stuck in the cabins down there," Odd said. "Oh, I thought I had closed them in time. Speaking of, I don't even know why I opened them in the first place," Jeremie said, slightly embarrassed. "I'll go "retrieve the package"," Odd said, trying to make a joke. Jeremie shook his head in disapproval as Odd climbed down the ladder to go get his friends.

"Anyone up there?" He could hear Ulrich shouting. "Yeah, coming." Jeremie should be letting you out of the scanners pretty soon," Odd said, trying to calm him down. "That's all fine and good, but we're a little short on air and explanations right now," Ulrich said, sounding desperate. "Jeremie will explain everything once he lets you out. You'll actually be going to Lyoko very soon, so don't worry," Odd said. "Oh, great," Yumi sighed. "Yeah, that's exactly what we needed," Ulrich added.

Suddenly, the cabins lit up. "Transfer, Yumi," Jeremie's voice came over the loudspeaker. "Scanner, Yumi," Jeremie announced. "Virtualization," Yumi landed in the middle of the mountain sector, with Ulrich touching down soon after. "Okay, the tower is pretty far north. I couldn't put you any closer due to the unusually large welcoming committee. Get moving!" Jeremie's voice said apologetically.

"All right, I guess. Any idea what X.A.N.A is trying to pull this time?" Ulrich asked, running at a full sprint. "Not just yet. Although with the new hospital equipment that was headed past the school this morning I'd imagine it has something to do with all that." "X.A.N.A's trying to take over a hospital? This is a little out of the ordinary for him. Usually it's all about eradicating humanity," Yumi said, slightly perplexed. "Yeah, it surprised me too. Aelita should be bringing up the rear about now," Jeremie said, trying to keep some focus on the task at hand. Aelita dropped a short distance ahead of them, and they continued on their way.

Usually, "welcoming committees" that X.A.N.A sent were never particularly large, a few monsters at best. This was easily 3 times bigger than anything they had ever seen. Aelita, knowing the procedure, went to hide behind a rock. Odd dropped in behind Ulrich, laser arrows at the ready. Jeremie, wanting to see the strategy and coordination the Lyoko warriors were capable of, he decided to throw Odd's Overboard in. Odd jumped right on, and no one had even talked yet.

"All right, let's run an exercise. Yumi, you go left. Odd, you take the air. Ulrich, go right through the middle, lean toward Yumi if things start getting hectic," Jeremie instructed. "What about me?" Aelita asked, feeling left out. "You'll be moving up toward the tower the whole time. Let's see if we can get you in when X.A.N.A's not looking," Jeremie said. The whole thing went swimmingly. Following Jeremie's instructions, Yumi and Ulrich cleared lanes for Aelita, and Odd flew around on the Overboard giving aerial support. Within a few minutes, Jeremie heard the magic words, "Tower deactivated," and they were all sitting at the dinner table, talking about the mission.

"Einstein, it seems like the whole thing was orchestrated. Did you plan the whole thing?" Ulrich asked, amazed at their earlier performance. "Not really. I noticed Aelita had been frozen whenever you three were fighting monsters, and decided to throw a little video game strategy in there. Odd wasn't as effective on the ground as he was in the air. Coupled with the fact that Odd didn't get shot off of his board, it even improved his accuracy tenfold," Odd seemed impressed with himself and said "You know, I thought I was getting better," "Yeah, but of course, you're already amazing at everything!" Aelita said with sarcastic enthusiasm.

Dinner came to a slow close, with everyone retreating to their rooms for the night. Jeremie couldn't sleep. He was kept awake by the fact that they were nowhere close to defeating X.A.N.A, and the fact that he was trying to take control of a hospital scared him. X.A.N.A never focused like that. Perhaps the game was finally changing to small scale. Specifically targeting their families, or the families of friends? He would have to find out.

Aelita couldn't sleep either. She was still coming to grips with the fact that she was human at one point in her life. Her father had left her, sacrificed her so that humanity could continue its existence. Sometimes, when she thought about it, she wasn't sure what to think. Sometimes she thought about shutting the computer off again, after locking down the factory. It was really the only safe way to ensure X.A.N.A didn't get out of the super computer. She would have to talk to Jeremie. He seemed to the be only one who actually understood what she was going through.

Odd couldn't sleep because he found the glory of online gaming. Using a pair of Aelita's headphones, he decided tonight would be the night to play his favorite shooting game. The headphones were insulated, so he didn't have a chance of waking up Ulrich, even with the noise of the rifle he was firing. Playing late in to the night, he knew he would regret it. He kept going anyway.

Yumi couldn't sleep either. Her parents were arguing again. This never was particularly fun, but occasionally her mother said something that made her chuckle. At least this time they were trying to be quiet about it, but weren't doing a very good job. She hoped that her father wouldn't have to leave again. She definitely didn't want to have Ulrich trying to help either. She liked that he tried, but she always thought it was never really his place. Of course, he had helped keep her family together, so she couldn't be too mad at him. This all was very confusing to her. Maybe she just needed sleep.

Ulrich could almost sleep, but something was nagging at him. He wasn't sure what direction his life was going in at the moment, at least in the short term. Mostly because of his feelings for Yumi. He wasn't sure how he was going to approach the "problem". The way she looked at him and the way she generally acted when they were around the others had "just friends" written all over it. But the way she looked at him and spoke to him when they were in private was...different. But he had an obligation to his father. Surely, being Japanese, she could understand that. He would have to sleep on it; he was terribly tired.

1 Jenai is a real person. He is a member of the group Ego Thieves. If he has any issues with this reference, I ask that he contact at me at my registered NaNoWriMo e-mail address, so I can change it.

2 Reso's Technetium is a real song.

3 Borgore is a real person. Please follow Jenai's instructions for copyright infringement claims.

4 Short for Flux Pavilion. Also a real person.


	2. Romance for Dummies

Monday was never great at Kadic. Not for most kids. Nobody usually went anywhere or did anything, so everyone was bored, including the teachers. It was rumored that may even leave the school, but no one was sure why. Perhaps she just wanted to try something new.

Yumi walked up to the bench her friend was sitting on. "Hey, Jeremie," she greeted their resident genius. "Hi, Yumi. Have you seen any of the others?" Jeremie asked. He hadn't seen head nor tail of the others since last night at the factory. "No, actually—Oh wait, there's Odd and Aelita," she said. They seemed to be having a heated argument about something, "You should just give it a chance!" Odd pleaded as they approached the bench. "I told you no. I didn't like it the first time, and quite honestly never have liked it," Aelita said forcefully. Jeremie was concerned, but Odd was a huge whimp when it came to things like these, so he asked anyway, "What are you guys talking about?" Odd answered before Aelita, "I'm trying to get Aelita to listen to Mt. Eden," he continued, "She says she's "never going to listen to it!"" Jeremie scoffed, and said "Good! Mt. Eden is horrible anyway." "It's a mystery how you guys have the taste in music that you do," he said, and walked off to the cafeteria. A collective chuckle could be heard from the bench.

Ulrich wasn't seen until just after breakfast had started. "Hey, where have you been?" Jeremie asked as he walked to the table. "I was just doing some last minute studying for the math test. We were allowed to bring in a note card, right?" Ulrich asked, sounding slightly nervous. "Yeah, depending on the notes you took, you should get a reasonable grade," Aelita added. "Hmm, yeah, I suppose." Ulrich said, surprisingly disinterested. But then he perked up, and said, "Hey, Yumi, would you mind meeting me by the ice cream shop near the gates after school today?" Yumi seemed surprised and asked, "Sure, Ulrich, but what for?" He replied, "I just want to talk to you about something. Nothing serious," trying to downplay how eager he was.

The day had been long and boring. Last period was math, and so the math test began. With Jeremie andAelita across the room, it wasn'tgoing to be easy for Odd to pass this one. As per usual, he hadn't studied. His parents had recently become more concerned with his grades, and wanted C's out of him at minimum. Maybe all of that stuff Ulrich had done the previous night would make the test easy for him. Fortunately, he had paid a little bit of attention during the week, so maybe he wouldn't completely fail. Ulrich thought the test was a breeze. Since the teacher overseeing the test had allowed use of the notecard, it had been ten times easier to solve every quadratic equation the test threw at him. Jeremie and Aelita had, true to form, finished early, and were passing a note:

Something is bothering me.

What's up, Aelita?

Well, being de-virtualized is great and all, but I wonder what I left behind.

What do you mean?

Well, like I told everyone, it seems like I've lived here before. Near Kadic, in fact.

Yeah. You think you've left something behind?

Yes. And this bug that X.A.N.A's given me; it feels like a curse sometimes.

Well, it's something you'll have to live with. I feel like I'm getting close to a breakthrough in the

coding too. Like something I've been missing will pop up soon.

Well, I hope you get to it soon.

I'm doing my best.

Thank you, Jeremie.

Any time.

The end of the school day came to a close, and most of the school retreated to their rooms, with the exception of two students. Ulrich stood outside the shop with a straight face. He only wanted answers as to why she behaved the way she did. It confused him, and no guy likes being confused. So, he was going to become..unconfused, he thought. He could see Yumi coming from the distance, and couldn't help but look at her. Sometimes he was completely mesmerized. But he would have to put aside these feelings if she said they were really "just friends" and quite honestly, he wanted to. But his ever optimistic friend would tell him "You can't help who you like." And he really hoped that this addage didn't hold true for him.

"Hey, Ulrich," she said, slightly nervous. He had been VERY forward in asking her out like this, and she wasn't sure what to expect from all of this. 9 out of 10 times, a guy asked her out to profess his undying love for her, and she definitely wasn't ready for that yet. Although, she wouldn't be totally against taking it slow with Ulrich. She would need time to think it over if that's what he wanted. She didn't want to get caught up with a boy and drop her schoolwork. Odd was living proof of how social stuff could get in the way of schoolwork, but she didn't want to be come drab and boring either. "Hey, Yumi. I already reserved us a table," he said, still trying his hardest to remain stoic. He wasn't exactly sure how this was going to go. They got in line, like a regular couple. Nothing too strange, until Yumi grabbed his hand out of nowhere. Since this was what he was going for, he said nothing. As they were approaching the register, Yumi realized what she had been doing, and let go of his hand. "Sorry," she said. He said nothing in reply. All he had for her was a smile, and that seemed like enough for her, as she didn't move away or send any visual cues that she was extremely embarrassed other than the large rose hue that seemed to be moving up her face.

They sat down, and began eating, making small talk until they were about halfway through their "meal". Ulrich broke the short silence first. "Yumi, I've been avoiding what I actually asked you here to talk about," he said. Yumi didn't seem surprised but a little, and said, "Yeah, I thought you might have something a little more serious than today's study hall to talk about," she said, chuckling. "Yeah," Ulrich said, slightly embarrassed at the fact that she had found him out so early. "It seems like lately, you've been…acting outside of "the boundaries"" Ulrich said simply. "What do you mean?" Yumi asked in surprise. She had no idea what he was talking about. "You told me we were just friends," he began, "It seems like lately, you've been wanting to get outside of that boundary," he finished hesitantly, as if she would strike him at any moment. "Hmm. Yeah, I can see how you would think that. But trust me, it's not the way you think. I suggest you rethink the way you perceive friends," she said, trying to let him down easy.

"Okay. I just…wanted to make sure we were still clear on that. I mean, even up at the counter you" he was interrupted. "Yeah, I know. It was a mistake," she said, trying not to draw attention to the blush creeping up her face again. "Well…okay," Ulrich said, which was not exactly what he wanted to hear from himself or Yumi. But it was what he came for, and that is what he was going to leave with. At least, that was what he hoped to leave with. A shred of his dignity intact.

Jeremie had started walking down the scenic route to the factory. He remembered this area because it was the same road he had walked Aelita home on just after she had been materialized. Something seemed out of whack about the road. It could've been because traffic was unusually heavy, or that there was a new intersection. He would have to get out more. Walking down the road, he noticed all the new shops and restaurants that had been put in since his last visit. He would have to take the group out here some time. He hadn't heard about anyone except Yumi actually getting outside at all. Maybe he'd ask her what was good around here. Of course, the little Italian restaurant he had found was fine, but he believed it was time for something new. Walking in the crosswalk, he noticed what he had (or hadn't) done. He had walked into the crosswalk without pushing the "Walk" button. He looked to his left and saw a small blue sedan rocketing toward him. At that moment, not even St. Mary could convince him he had a chance. The thing is, he did.

Screams, the sounds of breaking glass and bones shattering filled his ears. Being lifted while staring into red lights, and a man talking while sirens blared were the things he saw and heard next. He couldn't think, let alone feel anything, and had to let it all happen before him. He heard the words of a concerned sounding woman, "This is the adolescent hit and run we pulled in," she said. She continued with "He has some pretty serious internal bleeding, and a chunk of metal splintered into his arm. We can operate, but he may not survive even the most precise surgery. The bleeding is under control for now. We're giving him something for the pain, too." A large-sounding voice spoke in response, "Hmm. Okay. He'll probably have to stay for the rest of the week for the recovery. Name of…Jeremie Belpois, correct?" "Yes, doctor," She responded.

"Okay. His friends are here to see him as well. Should I let them in?" The doctor asked.

"Is he awake?" The nurse answered.

"Jeremie? Can you hear me?" The doctor said.  
"Uggghhhyes. Let them….in," he moaned in response.

Within minutes, his friends had piled into the room. They lined his bed, and stormed him with questions. "Einstein, what were you doing? We all know that intersection isn't safe!" Ulrich blurted as soon as he walked into the room. Odd joined in, and said "You're not going out alone ever again, I guess." He said. "What were you even doing in that part of town? Walking to the factory? There wasn't even an attack!" Yumi said, talking with herself. Aelita was the only quiet one. Jeremie was grateful for this. Had she been in hysterics too, Jeremie wouldn't know what to do with himself. Although she seemed quiet on the outside, on the inside she was screaming. "Oh, I hope he's all right," she thought to herself. She had never really had any big tradgedy other than her father's apparent death befall her, so she wasn't sure how to react.


	3. The Importance of Looking Both Ways

OrangeChima: Thanks for the compliment. It was rushed, and that was due to an error in document uploading.

Everyone else who put this story in their alerts: I apologize for the chapter spam. IN trying to get my document to look perfect, I seem to have spammed all of you with fake updates. It won't happen again.

Also, at the end of November, I'll be releasing a TGIO (Thank Goodness It's Over) Dubstep mix. You can pretend that it was Aelita's mix from the beginning of the story.

Danke, and enjoy the chapter.

* * *

"He'll be fine. He's got to be," she said. "Oh, I'm sure he will be," the doctor said from behind them, apparently none of them had seen him come in. Or maybe he had never left. "Your friend has some pretty serious injuries. He may not survive the surgery. But we're going to do all we can to save him," the doctor said, trying to reassure the group that their friend would make it out of this ordeal unscathed. "Well, what's wrong with him?" Aelita asked urgently. The doctor responded calm and collected, "He was hit by a car, as you may have heard. The car he was hit by got hit by another car. The resultant collision caused a chunk of metal to splinter inside your friend's arm. We've removed most of it, but a large piece is blocking arterial blood flow almost completely. If we remove it incorrectly, it could cause a lot of internal bleeding. Also, he may not be able to feel it, but he's in a lot of pain. And he's going to be if his supply of pain meds ever stops going into his system," the doctor finished with a sigh. He usually couldn't stand to see children vulnerable like this.

The group, after about an hour of trying to rouse Jeremie from his sleep (against the doctor's wishes, no less) they headed back to the academy. Aelita had taken his laptop. It was the only way to determine if an attack was on the way without intruding upon Jeremie's privacy. She was a complete mess. She had never even considered the possibility of one of her friends being hurt like this. His LIFE was on the line. _"They'd better not mess up when they get into him,"_ she thought angrily, _"or so help me God, I'll end every one of them on the spot."  
_Ulrich wasn't sure what to think. Jeremie seemed like the least likely out of all of them to get hit by a CAR. Jeremie had never even been in a fist fight, let alone caught in the middle of a crowded street. Perhaps he had seen something that looked suspicious or something X.A.. Anything had to be a better explanation than the one he had received from the doctor. _"Just an accident. Whatever," _he thought, _"Einstein would never have been idiotic enough to risk himself like that. And to be put in the same hospital that X.A.N.A tried taking over too! It's just not like him."_

_ "He never should have gone out anyway," _ Yumi thought to herself. She was taking it almost as hard as Aelita was, because she didn't think she could handle any more of this "almost losing people" thing. After the Ulrich incident, she had promised herself she would be a little more protective of her friends. Especially when they got involved in things that may or may not be good ideas. Like Jeremie's experiments for example. Of course, it wasn't his fault he always needed a human test subject. He just needed to be more careful.

Odd didn't know how he felt. Sometimes, he wondered what exactly was going to happen to everyone if Jeremie was out for the count. _"I guess we'll find out soon enough. I never understood what was so weird about this anyway. He was hit by a car, but it seems like he wouldn't have forgotten to press the walk thing. Jeremie __didn't forget the little things. Ever. But I guess, being the inside kind of guy that he is, the logistics of walking across a street really wouldn't occur to him," _ he thought. "I just wish he was here to help us out with our science homework," he said out loud. Ulrich grunted in agreement. Odd wondered silently if he was asleep.

The next day, everyone was out of form. They all sat down, and ate silently at breakfast. Yumi had stopped having breakfast at her own house because she thought that they might need her at the school for emotional support. Her own parents, despite their bickering were together on the issue of her attending Kadic. They were considering moving her to a new school so the same thing didn't happen to their own girl. Odd's parents had been worried, but were not considering moving him. Ulrich's parents had also heard, but didn't really care because Kadic was the top educational facility in the area, and if he wasn't going there, he wasn't going at all. Even Ulrich knew that was not an option. So, he went. Aelita wasn't really with the group at breakfast. Her thoughts had been elsewhere while she was eating.

She hadn't been able to keep her mind off him since she saw him yesterday. He looked so defenseless. And yet, HE is what enabled all of them to provide a shield for the rest of the world. They needed him. SHE needed him. If it weren't for him, she wouldn't be here. Sometimes is really scared her to think about where she might be if he hadn't turned on the supercomputer. Dead?

The day was dreary and boring. Yumi couldn't pay attention in class, and Ulrich and Odd both got 4 hours of study hall for the next two days. Ulrich, despite his best efforts, couldn't pay attention and failed one of Mrs. Hertz's pop quizzes. Odd didn't pay attention much anyway, but this was worse than anyone had ever seen. He couldn't believe it when he had heard from Ulrich that he hadn't made a funny joke all day. He was even eating less, and only had half of his dinner. No one was sure exactly how Odd felt, being that he hardly ever spoke about his actual feelings to anyone.

Aelita had been carrying around Jeremie's laptop like a large book all day, hugged to her chest. It wasn't until he was gone that she actually realized how much she appreciated his company. She went through her classes without speaking to anyone. Even at dinner, she was completely silent. She was still having trouble dealing with the whole ordeal. Not because it was horrible (even though it was)but because nothing like this had ever happened before. What exactly was she supposed to feel besides sadness? She wasn't even sure if she should feel that, because he wasn't dead yet. And that was the best she could hope for.

But then, as she was about to drift off to an uncharacteristically troubled sleep, she heard a noise. A noise not unfamiliar, but distressing nonetheless. To her, it was like an air raid over the school. An urgency overcame here, like none she had ever felt before in this situation. The noise she heard was not a bomb, but the infamous beeping coming from none other than Jeremie's laptop. An attack was being staged, and the only one capable of handling it AND the avatar was hospitalized. She could bring him his laptop, but that would never have enough power. Another thing was, the avatar could get just out of control like X.A.N.A was without constant monitoring in battle, so they couldn't even use it, AND Aelita would have to stay out of combat watching it on the mainframe until it was absolutely necessary that she go in to deactivate the tower.

As soon as the group gathered at the factory, Aelita sat down at the mainframe and began to type, sending her friends into Lyoko, and watching the avatar in its virtual prison (with strangely human accomodations) in another window. As soon as they were dropped in, and their vehicles spawned, Aelita began to search the news streams for any info of strange occurances, and was appalled at what she found.

Jeremie's hospital (along with 3 others in the region) had lost power. _"Well, hospitals usually have backup generators, don't they? He should be fine,"_ she thought to herself, trying to calm herself and focus on the mission. She couldn't lose focus now. People's children were in those hospitals. All the more reason to keep collected and help her friends. "Okay, we're coming up on the tower now," Ulrich said. "But the welcoming committee seems WAY larger than usual. Maybe X.A.N.A is trying to hedge his bets with this one," Yumi finished for him. "You know, it could be that he knows Jeremie has been hospitalized. His hospital and others around here have completely lost power. The backup generators can't hold out for long," Aelita said, trying to instill some sense of urgency in her friends and their mission. Although, it might be a little more difficult than she planned, being that there were 75 monsters in front of the tower they were approaching.

"Let's get this done quick then. I'm tired," Yumi said. Nobody, least of all Aelita, wanted Jeremie to remain helpless in that hospital while X.A.N.A was trying to pull a fast one on them. Suddenly, one of the news streams, a local channel, appeared on screen. This was because of a closed captions analyzer that Jeremie had programmed. Another pang of fear hit Aelita square in the chest. It had just been discovered that the room of one Jeremie Belpois still had power, and that he would probably experience equipment malfunctions. "So that's what X.A.N.A's plan is. He wants to bargain for Jeremie," Aelita thought aloud. The others reacted immediately. "What does he want?" shouted Ulrich and Yumi at the same time. Odd responded with a curt "We all know he's not going to get anything out of us."

Aelita felt she had made a HUGE error in assuming that's what X.A.N.A was doing and working up her friends like that, and made to correct it by saying, "Actually, I'm not sure if that's really what X.A.N.A is trying to do here. We may have to wait and see what's actually going on at the hospital, but all signs point to X.A.N.A. I'll keep you informed. For now, just try to keep from getting devirtualized."

His vision was hazy. His head felt like it was going to explode, just like in that scene from Scanners. He couldn't get a handle on exactly where he was. He tried opening his eyes, but was met with blindingly bright lights. But then, he started to remember. The crosswalk, the ambulance, his friends. He tried to get out of the bed, but couldn't. His arm was absolutely killing him. Next, he tried opening his eyes again. He found that he could see adequately now, and looked around. It was strange to be in the hospital, not because he didn't think he should be, but because his heart monitor and IV monitor were both completely unplugged from the wall. Outside, the hallway was completely dark, from what he could see from his bed.

Jeremie reconnected his heart and IV monitor with his unsore arm. It was probably night, about 11 PM if he had to guess. The doctors might be in to check on him soon. As if on cue, a doctor strolled in from outside. "Hello, doctor," Jeremie greeted the friendly looking man. After the doctor didn't respond, he went on, "Can you tell me exactly what happened to me?" he asked. The doctor just stared at him. As he was about to dismiss it as the doctor checking in on him and nothing else, he managed to get a peek at the doctor's eyes. Two short, simple words escaped his mouth.

"Oh no."


	4. Taking the Long Way Through

Excuse the short chapter. I'm just trying to keep the story updated. Enjoy.

* * *

Aelita was beginning to get worried. The group had made almost no progress, and there had been no new stuff on the news about the hospital on the local news channel responsible for initial coverage of the incident. Although, there was one upside. The avatar hadn't been as uncontrollable as Aelita had previously thought. Since Jeremie never was one for videogames, he had made the user interface as easy to navigate as possible. This helped, but it was still a little more difficult than Aelita had expected it would be. Then, all of a sudden, an idea popped into Aelita's head. "Hey, what if we go into Sector 5? We might be able to find something there that can help us understand what's going on here," she said. "Anything to get out of this mess," Yumi said, who was currently pinned down behind a rock. Ulrich was trying to get her out of there, and responded with a quick "Sure, let's do it." Odd was busy clearing the tower of Tarantulas and said, "Yeah, let's go. This was getting boring anyway."

Jeremie couldn't believe the mess he was in. He should've known this would happen. Especially with what was going on now, there was NO way this should've happened. He couldn't believe how much of an idiot he had been. For the love of God, forgetting to hit the walk button had to have been the worst possible thing he could've done. And now, because X.A.N.A was an opportunist, he had been captured. Great. He couldn't even sleep now because of it. The pain in his arm had been getting steadily worse since he had woken up too. He had a slight feeling in his stomach. It told him he probably wasn't going to make it through the night. He pushed the feeling aside. His friends would come through for him.

The Lyoko warriors had never been more overwhelmed. In Sector 5, after leaving the Arena, they had been attacked twice, and the rooms had changed 3 times in the course of their excursion there. Yumi and Ulrich were pinned down in the now cavernous room they were in. The avatar turned out to be ineffective, as it too had life points, as Aelita had figured out the hard way. Since the avatar had been deactivated, Aelita came to Lyoko, but was promptly devirtualized. X.A.N.A had remained silent since taking the hospital over. This scared everyone, because they now all thought that X.A.N.A had no intention of giving Jeremie back to them.

As they pushed on, the found that instead of just one, several towers had been activated; 7 to be precise. The only two they could currently assess were the two in Sector 5, however. It seemed like X.A.N.A was trying to focus energy to put a ghost inside a Lyoko warrior, but no one could really understand why, or tell for sure. But this was scary in it's own way. " X.A.N.A was never meant to improvise like this," Aelita said, "What could he possible want to do with putting a ghost inside Jeremie? He could already end him if he wanted to," she finished. She was talking to herself, and never really expected a response.

During her time at the factory, Aelita had tweaked the virtualization program to allow her to edit memory blocks of the supercomputer. The one's she targeted specifically were of course, her friend's life points. To the slight dismay of the other Lyoko warriors, this now meant that any one Lyoko warrior could stay in Lyoko as long was as necessary, as long as you had enough time and life points to wait for the "heal".

No one was thrilled when Aelita announced what time it was. It was 2 in the morning. Unfortunately, a return to the past would be necessary to avoid any and all questions about their absences. Aelita wasn't entirely sure if it was a good idea though, because she wasn't sure if X.A.N.A's power increase scaled with the amount of time that was turned back. She expected it to be a long trip, because everyone had agreed that they should return to the point prior to Jeremie's accident, which was 4 days ago. She really couldn't argue with that logic.

Suddenly, she hatched a plan. It involved a lot of risk, and opening a hole into the real world for X.A.N.A. Nothing like this had ever been attempted, and would likely blast a hole in modern physics. She would have to make preparations. Overcoming the Heisenberg uncertainty principle(again) and the aufbau principle would be nearly impossible. She had to find a way to get in contact with Jeremie. That was going to be a challenge in and of itself. However, it was a safe bet that X.A.N.A hadn't encrypted the data stream in Sector 5 (for obvious reasons) so they might be able to get in to the ghost which was currently holding Jeremie hostage. She couldn't let anyone else know about the plan either, or X.A.N.A might pick up what they were doing and try to break into their own data stream.

Yumi was getting close to being devirtualizd, and was healed. "Thanks Aelita," she said, "Odd needs a reload too," she finished. Aelita had found an old macro program, and had assigned the reloading and healing programs to their own keys. Things seemed to be going well, as far as pushing the one tower in Sector 5. _"Time to being preparing, I suppose," _she thought to herself. She spoke with a bit of hesitance, "Yumi, I have an idea on how to contact Jeremie. But you need to go to the Celestial Dome to collect some data for me. It's possible that we can control the ghost, as long as I can get Terran control of one tower," she finished, slightly out of breath. "Yeah, I can do that," Yumi agreed.


	5. A Glimmer of Chance

Jeremie was having difficulties. X.A.N.A's doctor had strapped him to the bed, without the pain medication. The pain was blinding, and nearly unbearable. Almost. The only thing that kept him hoping that he might actually survive this ordeal was the ever smiling face of his own Aelita Hopper. He couldn't tell why, but he was drawn to her. He definitely liked her. But all that would have to wait until he was out of this accursed hospital.

He wasn't exactly sure how he was going to manage it, but he knew that X.A.N.A, like always, would slip up at some point or another. Or so he hoped. An idea he had was to cause a short circuit inside the human body, disrupting the ghost long enough for him to escape. Although, getting a X.A. human to ingest something that had been spiked with a lot of minerals wasn't exactly going to be a cakewalk. He would have to think on it. It's not like he had anything else to do right now anyway.

Yumi was in the Celestial Dome, and was, like Jeremie, having difficulties. Yumi could communicate better with Aelita than either of the boys could, but all of this complicated subsystems stuff was, to say the least, really hard. She had nearly crashed Lyoko twice, but she was getting close to the breakthrough that Aelita needed. There seemed to be other stuff going on that was eating up memory, like when she had a virus on her laptop at home.

"Aelita, are you doing anything to eat memory?" Yumi asked, now frustrated with the slowness. Being tired also didn't help her objective. "No, Yumi. Remember, I don't have any control while you're using the terminal in Sector 5. My guess is X.A.N.A is starting to use the ghost for more than just watching Jeremie. I really need you to hurry up," Aelita said. Suddenly, Ulrich's voice came over the headset, "Aelita, we've got a problem. The Schyphozoa is on scene," he said hurriedly. Aelita reacted with a slight jerk, "Uhh, get out of there. We can't risk one of you getting possessed while Yumi is away," she said.

And so began the chase throughout Sector 5. Just as Yumi made the breakthrough, a tower was deactivated, and the Schyphozoa charged them (as quick as it could, anyway). Odd tried to outrun the scyphozoa, but ended up being devirtualized as the rooms changed for what seemed like the 20th time. Yumi and Ulrich were all alone on Sector 5, with no real hope of getting Odd revirtualized. They had never tried that before, and had no idea what effect that would have on the molecular structure of anyone who attempted it. It was best to let that go, especially since the scanners were only intended for one-time use anyway.

Yumi had the data. She could see it, but didn't really understand what it was. All she knew is that Aelita needed it fast. Ulrich was in trouble, and she needed to get back to him. It's not like he could take care of himself, and she relished the thought of getting him back for making her blush at the ice cream parlour. She could hear Aelita sighing with relief. They were going to get Jeremie back. Finally, after 8 and ½ hours of fighting, and lasting through it, they were finally going to get him back. Aelita couldn't have been happier. She had decided. She was going to tell him how she felt, despite the consequences she faced. This feeling was familiar to her.

Jeremie was running out of options. X.A.N.A's guards had been switched out every 15 minutes since he first started formulating a plan to escape. Every time, he had to start over, because every single guard was different. This meant he always needed a different plan. He was too tired for this. His arm felt like it was going to burst with pain. His eyes burned, each unique sting telling him to close his eyes and resign his fate. His breathing had since become ragged, and slow. He never knew a human body could take this much punishment. X.A.N.A had taken to putting several kinds of nonlethal substances in his system. None of them did any harm, but they did disorient and confuse him. He was in a total daze. But then, he heard a voice that sounded like it was from an 8-bit game. "Jeremie," the orderly said. It didn't seem like X.A.N.A was the one talking, though.

It couldn't be. He wouldn't believe it. It was all a trick. "What do you want with me now?" he said bitterly. "It's Aelita. I've taken control of the ghost. We can get you out of there," the orderly said. Jeremie seemed vulnerable, but only for a second. "Wait, how di—No. It's impossible. You never could have. Leave me alone to pass in peace," he said, finally accepting his fate. "No, Jeremie. I won't. Watch this," the orderly said. Jeremie watched in pure awe as the orderly slowly and robotically moved to the window, opened the latch, and stood away, staring at him. Jeremie spluttered. They had finally found a way to control the ghosts. This was…extraordinary. "Jeremie, you need to hurry. I—We need you, and Ulrich is on the run from the Schyphozoa is on Ulrich's back, and Odd has been devirtualized. Also, not to worry you, but X.A.N.A will soon be resuming control of the ghost," she said in a hurried tone.

With that, he left. He ran through the forests in his bare feet. He had only just noticed that someone had been nice enough to bring his actual pajamas to the hospital, so he wasn't running around in a hospital gown. It had to be at LEAST 4 AM. It was cold, and the moon was low in the sky. The sun would be up soon. _"Did they really stay up all night fighting? Someone has to be getting sleep,"_ he thought to himself. He reached the entrance to the sewers. _"Here we go again,"_ he thought. He nearly fell down the manhole, seeing as how badly injured his arm was. He wondered if there was anything stuck in there. That's probably what he was in the hospital for anyway. The sewers were scarier at night. It seemed that every footstep echoed off the walls. He was in awe at the things that lived down here, and how they acted at night. Twice he saw a rat the size of his forearm. He had also nearly tripped into the sewage, seeing as he had skipped the kick scooter in favor of the little bit of coordination his feet offered him. He came to the entrance of the factory, and to the rope which led down to the freight elevator. He had no idea how he was going to do this. He had barely mastered Jim's training course, even when he was in perfect health. Now he was injured. But that didn't matter. Sliding halfway down with one arm, he lost his grip and fell to the cold, unforgiving, concrete surface below. He felt his foot crack with the impact. He screamed. Feeling that the occasion was too important to wait for help, he got up, and crawled on his good arm to the elevator, and pressed the "Down" button.

He arrived at the mainframe room where he collapsed on the steel surface of the elevator floor, awake and feeling through the pain. Odd was sitting idly near the wall, fearing the worst, heard the elevator, stood, and waited near the door. When his friend arrived, with a quick gasp, he picked up his friend and carried him to Aelita, who, after giving Jeremie a rundown of the current situation, lifted her friend into the chair. It took him a minute to get over the pain, but he was soon on the microphone, communicating with Ulrich and Yumi, who had since met up, and were trying to combat the Schyphozoa and its cronies.

With all the power X.A.N.A had procured from the non-Terran towers, he had given the Schyphozoa the ability to regenerate its tentacles. "X.A.N.A is definitely pulling out all of the stops this time," Jeremie said to the Lyoko warriors, who were still in combat. "You don't have to tell us. We saw a blue creeper with 3 times more life points than any other one earlier. It took us 15 minutes just to kill that one, let alone everything that came with it," Ulrich said. "Okay, well let's focus up. I'm here now. The only thing is, we'll need quite a serious return to the past to fix all this. I'm sure the school has noticed by now that I've been hospitalized, and you all aren't in your rooms. This could cause issues later on for all of us. I don't know what X.A.N.A will be capable of after we do this, but the odds are that the return to the past won't scale with how much he can do with the supercomputer. He will gain a LOT of power, though," he said, trying to downplay just how bad the whole situation was.

"Well, let's get this over with. I'm done with this. We all need sleep," Ulrich said. He definitely wasn't having fun anymore. But he wasn't to begin with, either. X.A.N.A had realized what had happened, and was showing it on Lyoko. He had retaken the Terran tower, and was trying to absolutely destroy Ulrich and Yumi. Since Aelita had had enough of a cool off period to actually get revirtualized, she went back in, in the mountain sector. It was surprisingly undefended. She proceeded to the tower, and decativated it. One down, 6 to go.


	6. The REAL Chapter 6

Excuse the short chapter again. This is all I've got written as of yet, figured the story would need an update.

OrangeChima: Yeah, but we're not out of the woods yet.

* * *

Things were going to smoothly for Jeremie's tastes. It wasn't like X.A.N.A to just leave them alone like this, especially since he had just lost a hostage. He shut down the elevator and all of the electronic doors just to be safe. Granted, a ghost would probably just phase through a wall, but since Jeremie was inoculated against ghosts, it would have to find another way in.

It seemed inevitable, but it was happening. Things were becoming worse on Lyoko. X.A.N.A had, even though he couldn't do much physically, was still pulling in any power he could, and it was having an obvious effect on the supercomputer. Voice communication was becoming sparse due to the degradation of the quality. Monsters were also appearing and disappearing. He had to make a decision. A winning move. The only thing he could think of to give themselves an edge against X.A.N.A to win this was restarting the supercomputer. Then he would more or less have to reset every aspect of the supercomputer (except for programs, of course) by resetting the circuit breaker. This would mean that Aelita would be pseudo-dead until the process was finished. The last time this had happened, they had found her in about 20 minutes. Doing this would take at least an hour. He needed to exhaust any options he had.

He would have to make sure the supercomputer would be able to take the stress of restarting. All of the processors looked okay, except one who had the occasional computing error. The RAM was top notch, although he would have to flush it before the restart. He turned the focus back to Lyoko. "Guys, how's it going?" he asked into the headset. A voice responded, "Pretty well, we're about to deactivate the last auxilliary tower," it said. Jeremie couldn't tell who it was. "Okay, I'm bringing you all in. I need your help." Jeremie said, as he started the process.

Aelita had heard the call, and quickly stepped out of the cabin with her friends. She was the first person into the elevator. Upon reaching the mainframe, Jeremie walked in the elevator without a sound, pressed the down button and waited. When they reached the supercomputer room, he spoke, "We're in the home stretch now, I think I have a way to get us one step ahead of X.A.N.A, and let Odd go to sleep." he said. Odd was nearly asleep now, leaning on Ulrich for support.

"Okay, what's your idea?" Aelita asked, eager to get this over with so she could talk with Jeremie in private. "Well, I'm basically going to do a little bit of spring cleaning on the supercomputer, but there's a catch," Jeremie said slowly. "Which is?" Ulrich asked hesitantly. Things were never easy with the group. "The supercomputer is going to need to be turned off. Aelita will be down for the count while this is going ," Jeremie replied, which was accompanied by a collective gasp from the group.

"That's too dangerous. We shouldn't do that," Yumi said. "Yeah, Einstein. I thought you were all about PROTECTING Aelita," Ulrich added, which Aelita met with a slight blush. "I am. " he answered, "But if we want to end this within the week, we have to do this." Jeremie said. Then, a loud bang sounded in the room. "What the HELL was that?" Odd asked, jerking awake. Jeremie looked sullen as he said, "X.A.N.A's found us. And by how loud that bang was, my guess is he's pissed."

"I guess we'd better hurry it up then," Aelita said slowly. "Uhh, are you-" Jeremie began, but he was interrupted. "Yes, I am. Now hurry before X.A.N.A gets down here and makes this whole fight for nothing," Aelita said. Jeremie walked over to the supercomputer, and after one last reassuring look from Aelita, he threw the switch, and she collapsed with a soft thud.

"Good catch," Jeremie said, annoyed.

"Hehehe.." Ulrich and Odd laughed nervously.

* * *

Gogo gadget tertiary character conflict!


End file.
